Dems accuse Yaede admin of mismanaging shelter
HAMILTON » The Democratic-led Hamilton Council promises to investigate the Hamilton Township Animal Shelter and Adoption Center later this summer, accusing Republican Mayor Kelly Yaede’s administration of mismanaging the budget and killing “innocent animals.”
“Innocent animals are being killed each year due to the ineffective leadership of the mayor and her administration,” Councilman Rick Tighe said Wednesday in a press release. “I believe there are ways we can improve the town’s euthanasia rate while also reducing the burden on our taxpayers. I look forward to conducting a full investigation to fix this problem once and for all.”
Calls for an investigation into the animal shelter began Tuesday evening when Council Vice President Jeff Martin, a Democrat, called for a probe into the whole kit and caboodle.
“Three years ago Hamilton spent $1.1 million to improve the Hamilton Animal Shelter with the promise it would reduce euthanasia rates, improve adoption rates and therefore reduce costs. Unfortunately, what we have seen is the opposite,” Martin said Wednesday in a press statement. “Using the numbers most advantageous to the shelter, the shelter’s ‘kill-rate’ has reduced by only 1 percent, and its operating budget has increased by 44 percent in just four years.”
Martin did not provide any context or documentation to support his figures but said Hamilton Council will conduct an open investigation into the animal shelter at the July 17 council meeting.
“I am saddened to see innocent animals killed each year while costing the taxpayers of Hamilton more money,” Hamilton Council President Anthony Carabelli Jr. said Wednesday in the press release. “We will conduct a full investigation into how the promises of Mayor Yaede have gone unfulfilled and the situation at the animal shelter is arguably worse and less-efficient than it was before we spent $1.1 million. After the mayor proposed a 5 percent tax increase this year, it is imperative we continue to look under every rock to lessen the burden on our taxpayers.” Hamilton Mayor Kelly Yaede holds “Lilly,” an adoptable dog from the Hamilton Animal Shelter, at an event Tuesday, May 6, 2014, to kick-off an expansion project at the shelter to relieve severe overcrowding, and provide a larger medical area and additional adoption rooms. and 2018 municipal budgets, it shows Hamilton’s total animal control-related appropriations have increased 55.8 percent over that fouryear span. Martin says the animal shelter’s operating budget has increased by 44 percent in just four years, but the Democratic press release did not cite any monetary figures to support that assertion.
The township this year was employing nine animal control maintenance workers, four being fulltime employees and five working part time. The township in 2014 employed seven animal control maintenance workers, three being fulltime employees and four working part time, according to the 2014 and 2018 municipal budgets as proposed by Mayor Yaede, which partly explains why wages and salaries for Animal Control Services have grown by 45.7 percent over that four-year period, according to a Trentonian analysis.
The township has greatly increased spending on Animal Control Services under Yaede’s leadership, a fact that the mayor does not deny.
“The Council Democrats do not even realize that by attacking the Animal Shelter for receiving more financial resources than in the past actually vindicates the very reason why we expanded our shelter — because we needed additional space to care for the rising number of shelter pets,” Yaede said Friday in her statement.
“Just a few weeks ago, when the Council Democrats held budget hearings and ultimately increased spending in the budget,” Yaede added, “they did not even question the Animal Shelter’s budget.”
The mayor unveiled her 2018 budget proposal in March that sought to raise the municipal purpose tax rate by 5 percent to help finance a $105 million spending plan. The Democratic trio of Carabelli, Tighe and Martin, who each took office on Jan. 1, led the charge to amend Yaede’s budget in a nuanced way that increased total spending by approximately $62,000 above what the mayor recommended while also reducing the mayor’s proposed tax hike in half.